I was watching from the porch as our sweet little Matty was exploring the yard the other day, sniffing along the fence by our front gate where a couple of neighbor dogs had just left their marks. All of a sudden Matty jumped back and I immediately heard the telltale rattle of a snake! I called her and she came to me obediently as the snake continued to rattle. Mr. Brown started to investigate from the other side of the big Arizona Cypress tree and after my third panicked yell for him to come, he finally came to me and I got the dogs safely in the house. I called to Bud to "check Matty, I think she's been snake bit". I grabbed the phone and my camera and returned to the yard to keep an eye on the snake as I called Barney, the local snake wrangler and he arrived within 10 minutes to capture the snake and remove it from our yard. Barney collects rattlesnakes through the summer and then sells them to a company in Salt Lake City that milks the snakes to make antivenin. It's sure nice to have him around.
I took a few pictures of the snake while waiting for Barney and it was pretty agitated, so I kept my distance. I didn't want it to move because it was in a good spot for Barney to recover it. It was between the fence and one of the big Arizona Cypress trees that run across the front of our property. After the snake was secured, we checked Matty again and a blood spot was evident on the top of her head. It looked like just one puncture wound at first. We took pictures of the progression of swelling and bleeding. A second puncture became evident after an hour and a half. Snake venom is an anticoagulant and Matty began to drip blood from both punctures within 3 hours of the bite as her head began to swell.
The swelling above her eye closed the eye and started down her neck before bedtime. We obviously didn't sleep well that first night and neither did Matty. She couldn't get comfortable and the watery blood dripped all night on her bed, on the floor, on the rug she ended up sleeping on. In the morning, the floor looked like a crime scene with blood spots all around the rug on Bud's side of the bed.
The swelling was the worst after about 36 hours, then we started to notice it going down a little every day. Matty hasn't been a very active dog for the last couple years since going blind, but she has been even less active since her snake bite. We are able to get her up to pee and drink water, but she wasn't interested in eating until Saturday.......3 days after the bite. Each day, the swelling was less and she was more interested in food. On Monday, day 5, she looks almost normal except for a little fluid still hanging in her neck. The spot above her eye where she was bitten is a scab about the size of an Oreo cookie. It looks awful, but doesn't seem to bother her too much and her eye is now partially open.
Though it is a frightening experience to see your dog get snake bit and get so sick, within a couple days a dog recovers pretty well and though she'll probably have a scar, her life won't be much different. I am a little more attentive to Matty's movements around the yard now. She likes to walk in the vincas and that has me a little worried.
I just hope she doesn't run into another snake on the property. We've had two Western Diamondbacks in the last month........both have been removed, so hopefully we won't have any new ones moving in for a while. Wish we had a nice king snake move in. That would be grand.....not a threat to the dogs, but a good deterrent to the rattlesnakes.
I took a few pictures of the snake while waiting for Barney and it was pretty agitated, so I kept my distance. I didn't want it to move because it was in a good spot for Barney to recover it. It was between the fence and one of the big Arizona Cypress trees that run across the front of our property. After the snake was secured, we checked Matty again and a blood spot was evident on the top of her head. It looked like just one puncture wound at first. We took pictures of the progression of swelling and bleeding. A second puncture became evident after an hour and a half. Snake venom is an anticoagulant and Matty began to drip blood from both punctures within 3 hours of the bite as her head began to swell.
The swelling above her eye closed the eye and started down her neck before bedtime. We obviously didn't sleep well that first night and neither did Matty. She couldn't get comfortable and the watery blood dripped all night on her bed, on the floor, on the rug she ended up sleeping on. In the morning, the floor looked like a crime scene with blood spots all around the rug on Bud's side of the bed.
The swelling was the worst after about 36 hours, then we started to notice it going down a little every day. Matty hasn't been a very active dog for the last couple years since going blind, but she has been even less active since her snake bite. We are able to get her up to pee and drink water, but she wasn't interested in eating until Saturday.......3 days after the bite. Each day, the swelling was less and she was more interested in food. On Monday, day 5, she looks almost normal except for a little fluid still hanging in her neck. The spot above her eye where she was bitten is a scab about the size of an Oreo cookie. It looks awful, but doesn't seem to bother her too much and her eye is now partially open.
Though it is a frightening experience to see your dog get snake bit and get so sick, within a couple days a dog recovers pretty well and though she'll probably have a scar, her life won't be much different. I am a little more attentive to Matty's movements around the yard now. She likes to walk in the vincas and that has me a little worried.
I just hope she doesn't run into another snake on the property. We've had two Western Diamondbacks in the last month........both have been removed, so hopefully we won't have any new ones moving in for a while. Wish we had a nice king snake move in. That would be grand.....not a threat to the dogs, but a good deterrent to the rattlesnakes.
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